"I'm a little disgusted. I can't believe somebody would actually do it on purpose," said McDowell.

“The facts don’t lie, and right now the facts and the training they have in place rule that it's arson,” said Amon Hudson, Public Information Officer with the Rochester Fire Department. “This was a very serious fire and very serious incident, so there needs to be some sort of answers.”

Meanwhile, McDowell hopes for answers, not only for himself but also for his neighbors that had to escape and lost their homes.

“We don’t understand why it had to happen to us like that. It could have been worse, like I said. People have kids, and that was just really dangerous for us. They put our lives at risk for no reason, as far as I know or anyone else knows,” said McDowell.

Firefighters will not say how or where the fire started, because the investigation is ongoing.